The McEwan's 80 shilling pub at Angle Park Terrace, named for the gravediggers who used to walk over from Dalry Cemetery.
The Athletic Arms sits at 1 Angle Park Terrace in Dalry, two streets back from Tynecastle Park and a short walk from Slateford Road. The pub trades almost universally as "The Diggers" — the nickname comes from the gravediggers of nearby Dalry Cemetery, who used to leave the gates a sign that read "diggers required" on busy days and finish their shift here. The story is told on the pub's own walls and across virtually every Edinburgh pub guide that covers the venue, including the Edinburgh Evening News and the CAMRA Edinburgh branch's "must-visit" list.
The right visitor wants a properly kept pint of McEwan's 80 shilling in a wood-and-tile Victorian back bar with no music. The wrong visitor wants cocktails, table service or anywhere with a DJ — The Diggers does not do any of those, and it is not going to start.
The pub is split into a public bar at the front and a smaller back lounge, both wrapped in dark Victorian wood with tile-panel detailing on the lower walls. CAMRA's Edinburgh real-ale guide flags the back-bar gantry as "one of the better unaltered Victorian back-bars in the city", which is the kind of compliment the pub has earned by not redecorating. There are no music speakers and no TV screens at the bar — the one concession to the modern era is a screen in the back lounge for big Hearts matches.
The standing order is McEwan's 80 shilling at £4.20 a pint — the pub is widely credited as Edinburgh's longest unbroken serve of the cask version of the beer, and regulars on r/Edinburgh consistently flag the pour as "the city's best 80/-". Belhaven Best, Tennent's lager and a Caledonian guest line run alongside. The whisky shelf is the underrated half of the menu: over 100 single malts, mostly Speyside and Highland, with drams from £4. The 12-year Talisker at £5.20 is the well dram if you want to drink properly.
The Guardian's recurring "Edinburgh pubs" coverage has listed The Diggers in its top-five pubs in the city for cask ale, with the note that "the cellar work shows in the glass." Skip the keg lager — the pub is built around what comes out of the hand pulls.
Tuesday and Wednesday read as the Dalry locals' bar — older average age, three regulars at the bar who have stood there for decades, conversation at speaking volume. Friday and Saturday evenings broaden out to Haymarket walk-ins and an Edinburgh-University postgraduate contingent who have discovered cask ale. Hearts matchday at Tynecastle (a five-minute walk) turns the pub into the de facto pre-match meeting point from 13:00 onwards — r/Edinburgh's matchday threads consistently put The Diggers in the top three Hearts pubs alongside the Caley Sample Room and the Tynecastle Arms.